If you have never read this book or seen the TV program or movie based on the book, it is a "must". I never laughed so much. If you ever directed or were in a Christmas pageant, you will certainly identify with the characters and enjoy this little book.
When I was growing up in the country in rural south Alabama, we always had a Christmas pageant at our little Baptist church. There were both adults and children participating in the pageant and those who could sing were always in the choir (along with some who couldn't carry a tune!).
We would start practicing soon after Thanksgiving. Two sisters, Vilettia Jones Mixon and Lena Jones Cowen, were always the directors and they kept the costumes for the next year. Once they selected people for the characters we would represent, we were given our lines to learn. The only part I remember playing was being an angel and wearing wings made from two coat hangers fastened together where the hooks would meet. They were covered with white cloth and the edges outlined with shiny silver tinsel. I think they pinned them to the back of our white robes we wore. I loved being an angel! The shepherds and wise men wore men's plaid bath robes. (I don't know who they borrowed these from. Our dad never owned a bathrobe.) The men wore towels around their heads for turbans. And the wise men; ah, I remember their shiny robes and jeweled head pieces. One of my favorite songs was "We Three Kings". Another of my favorites was "Away in a manger". Living on a farm and having animals, etc., I could not imagine a baby sleeping in a feeding trough.... Or anyone sleeping in the barn with all the animals, etc.
Mrs. Mixon's son Phillip shared with me recently that when they were moving from the family home and cleaning out the attic, he found the Christmas pageant box of costumes his mother had stored. She has been dead for many years. The costumes should have been put in the "Christmas Pageant Museum" - if there is such a place.
It was always so cold in our little white frame church. We all hovered around the big pot belly stove when we were waiting our turn to be on the "stage". The last time I remember being in a Christmas pageant was when I was a senior in high school. And that year I played the piano and felt so grown up. I had graduated from wearing the angel wings. Today when we are singing Christmas songs at our church, Elba United Methodist, my mind travels back to those days of the Christmas pageants and I remember all the words to those songs of long ago and I don't need a hymn book.
